To support the vast number of electronic devices used today, power electronic converters are nearly ubiquitous. Currently, power electronic converters are used in applications ranging from consumer electronic devices to light emitting diode (LED) lighting fixtures. As electronic devices continue to advance, the demands placed on their power electronic converters become increasingly stringent. For example, modern electronic devices require power electronic converters with minimal noise and tight voltage and/or current regulation. In an effort to meet these stringent demands, power electronic converters often include multiple stages to meet the regulation requirements of the electronic device they are associated with. While generally effective at providing a desired output voltage and/or current from a given input signal, multi-stage power electronic converters are complex, requiring a large number of components that consume both volume and power, thereby reducing the density and efficiency of the power electronic converter.
In a further effort to meet the stringent density and cost demands placed upon them, many power electronic converters have moved from isolated architectures such as flyback converters and half-bridge converters to simpler non-isolated architectures such as boost converters, buck converters, and other basic topologies. While non-isolated electronic power converters may improve the efficiency of power conversion, such an improvement comes at the cost of reduced safety margin and increased susceptibility to incoming voltage surges such as those occurring from a lightning strike. Accordingly, there is a need for isolated power electronic converter circuitry with a single DC to DC converter stage that is highly efficient, compact, inexpensive, and capable of providing a tightly regulated output.
Conventional power electronic converters employ silicon (Si) switching devices to transfer power from one element to another. While silicon (Si) devices have been proven effective for many conversion applications, the limitations of these devices are well known. For example, silicon (Si) devices have relatively high conduction loss, slow switching speed, and high switching energy losses for a given die area and blocking voltage. As a result, silicon (Si) switching devices are limited in use to relatively low switching frequency and low power density power electronic converter systems. Accordingly, there is a need for power electronic converter circuitry utilizing high performance wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor switching devices in these stringent power electronic applications.